


The Inside Out (IT x Stranger Things)

by Simp_For_Will_The_Wise1983



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Deadlights (IT), Demogorgon - Freeform, Losers Club (IT) Friendship, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 16,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24865207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Simp_For_Will_The_Wise1983/pseuds/Simp_For_Will_The_Wise1983
Summary: Ben, Bev, and Richie escape a fight with the Bowers Gang and become lost in the Inside Out--A doorway to multiple different universes--When they run into Eleven, who brings them to Mike and the others. There's just one problem--The doorway back to Derry, Main seems to be sealed, and things only go downhill from there. will Ben, Bev, and Richie make it back home? Or will the Demigorgon get to them first?
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 17
Kudos: 55
Collections: losers club





	1. Ben, Richie, and Bev Vs. The Bowers Gang

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I obviously do not own IT or Stranger Things or these characters etc.

Ben Hanscom rode his bike through the town of Derry one day, feeling conflicted. The Losers Club had broken up after a fight started between Richie and Bill about whether or not they should continue looking for Georgie. Things only went downhill from there.

Ben hadn't seen any of the Losers in two days, when the fight occurred. Ben knew that some of the Losers were still hanging out together, like Richie with Stan and Eddie or Beverly with (Ben sighed) Bill. Ben had known from the moment that Bill and Bev met that his poetry, no matter how romantic, stood no chance against Bill's looks.

So he was alone. His "friends" had given up left him.

Ben zoomed through the sidewalk of Derry on his bike, eyeing each storefront as he passed them by. Today was actually an exceptional day, considering past events. No murderous clown has annoyed him all day. No Bowers Gang, either. He had to say that he appreciated not being carved open by Henry's blade-

"Hey, lard ass!" Speaking of the devil. Ben had just ridden passed a dark alleyway that he thought was empty, until he heard the bully call after him, followed by the roar of an engine and a couple of older teenage laughs.

Fuck! Ben rode faster, as fast as he could, but the Bowers Gang was gaining on him. He looked for an exit, but kept passing storefront after storefront. He was looking for the storefronts to end, maybe even find an opening for the woods. He swerved to the right, immediately hearing the car behind him swerve as well. There were no more stores in sight, and the only houses in sight were in a distance. No one was on the road or even near it. No one was there to witness

"Leave me alone, Bowers!" Ben shouted, his legs beginning to get tired. 

The Bowers Gang's car sped up and swerved in front of him, slamming on the brakes when Ben was facing the side of their car. Shit! 

"Leave me alone, Henry!" he shouted. Bowers let out a maniacal laugh.

"Were just going to help you lose some weight, Tits," Bowers smirked, opening a pocket knife. Ben's head shot to the left. there were trees in a distance! He could lose the gang in the woods! He continued on with his bike, speeding towards the mass of trees, determined to escape the gang of bullies hot on his tracks. "Go get Tits! Don't let the fat ass escape!" Henry joined his goons as the gang chased Ben to the woods.

Almost there! Ben continued riding, ditching his bike at the entrance of the woods. He could find somewhere to hide in the mass of trees, but having his bike with him would make that harder.

Henry kicked the boys bike as he entered the woods, running after Ben, who was only a couple feet in front of the bully.

"Ah, look at him jiggle!" Henry sped up after the boy, yanking the hem of his shirt. The others laughed as Patrick Hockstetter pulled out a lighter and some bug spray and began to advance, but was interrupted by Henry's arm holding him back. He rolled his eyes and put his lighter and bug spray away.

"No." Henry ordered him, now pinning Ben to the ground, "We're not going to burn the fat off." He smirked, holding up his knife, "We're going to cut it off."

"Get off of me!" Ben grunted, trying to squirm his way out of the bully's grip. Henry responded by groping Ben's left nipple and holding the knife next to it. Ben screamed in both pain in fear, knowing where this was going.

"Fuck!" Henry exclaimed. A rock hit the back of his head and he spun around, dropping his knife onto the ground.

"Get the fuck off of him, psycho!" Richie stood there with a rock in either hand.

Richie? Ben thought, both confused and relieved. He then realized that the Kissing Bridge was nearby. But no one was with Richie. Richie was alone at the Kissing Bridge? Why?

Richie threw another rock at Henry and a rock at Patrick Hockstetter. He reached into his jean pockets and pulled out two more. Ben assumed that he had picked them up on his way from the Kissing Bridge. Ben jumped up, glad that Henry was off of him, and picked up Henry's knife from the ground.

"Hey, Bowers!" Ben held Henry's knife and shakily pointed it to the bully. Henry turned back around to face Ben and the anger on his face intensified and went to grab the blade of the knife. He winced and quickly pulled his shaking hand away. A deep cut had formed, blood streaming from it and down his wrist.

"Fuck." Henry pulled his damaged palm closer to his face, looking a the wound. Before he could advance on Ben, another rock was pelted at his head. "Shit! Well, what the Hell are you waiting for?" Henry looked for his three followers, but only saw Patrick. The other two fled.

"What are you doing here, faggot?" Henry shouted with pure anger.

"Shut up, Bowers!" Richie shouted with a shaky voice. He sounded like he wanted to burst into tears, but stood his ground, "Go away!" He threw another rock.

"Oh right!" Patrick smiled, pulling out his lighter and bug spray, "The arcade incident." He gave a loud and maniacal laugh. "Well," He aimed the bug spray and lighter at Richie, "take this, you flamer!" Richie scuttled backwards, nearly tripping over multiple vines.

Ben, still on the ground, quickly grabbed the rock nearest to him and pelted it at the back of the arson's head. Patrick grunted in pain but continued to advance on the scuttling thirteen year old.

Ben was relieved to see what happened next.

A familiar figure ran to Henry from behind. She was carrying a wooden bat. Ben watched in amazement as his love interest whacked Henry Bowers in the back of his head with the bat. He was knocked onto the ground, unconscious.

Patrick turned around at once and gasped. "You little shit!"

"Run!" Beverly Marsh shouted as she turned around and began to advance further into the woods, fallowed by the two boys, who were catching up to her. But it didn't matter. Patrick had stopped chasing the three thirteen year olds and was instead trying to wake up Henry Bowers.

"How-" Ben began when they began to slow down, "How'd you find us?"

"I followed Richie." Bev answered. Richie shuffled uncomfortably. "I saw him dashing out of the arcade and followed him to the Kissing Bridge, where he-" Bev saw Richie give her a look that told her to drop the subject, and she did so.

"We really should get back home," Richie said, trying to shake off the tension, "Eddie's mom-"

"We get it. You fucked his mom." Both Beverly and Ben said in sync.

Richie turned around and began to walk in the direction that led to the Kissing Bridge, but after a few steps, he fell.

It wasn't a trip. He fell through the ground and was now underneath the surface. He was soon followed by Ben, who fell on top of the trashmouth, crushing his ribs in the process, and Beverly, who immediately got up in a panic and checked her surroundings.

The three kids were shrouded in darkness and, when they looked up, they did not see a hole that they must have fallen through. Only darkness. Wait-no. There was light, but it was very distant.

"Can you get off of me before my ribs cave in?" Richie grunted.

"Oh, shit, sorry," Ben stood at once and Richie got onto his feet shortly after.

"What is this? Another one of that clowns traps?" Richie asked.

"Guys," Beverly spoke, pointing at something in the distance, "Who the hell is that?"

Ben squinted, but he saw it too. A young person--probably a boy, considering that they looked bald--was approaching the three of them, a subtly glow surrounded them.

"H-Hello?" Richie called fearfully. Ben grabbed his wrist.

"Don't. It might be Pennywise..."

"Who are you?" Beverly called out to the person. The person was now close enough that they could now tell that this was a bald girl with a bloodied nose.

"Eleven."


	2. Through The Inside Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The three Losers seek help in Eleven, who takes them through this mysterious and dark place and to Mike Wheeler's House.

"We fell down Here..." Bev said to Eleven. She was going to explain how they fell, but was immediately interrupted by Richie.

"Where the hell are we?" Ben cut in, asking Eleven, "This doesn't look like the underground..."

"Inside Out." was their only response. Ben assumed that the girl wasn't very good at English, considering how little she spoke.

"Can you lead us out of here? We don't even see the hole that we fell through."

Eleven nodded, turning around.

"Alright," Richie sighed, "Let's play follow the leader with the mentally insane!"

"Beep beep Richie." Bev chimed in, rolling her eyes. Eleven didn't seem to hear him, though, because she kept walking, unfazed.

The three of them followed her through a dark path, wondering how the hell this would lead back to Derry. Though the three Losers wouldn't mind if the path led somewhere else. A break from the murderous clown that's been terrorizing the children of Derry for weeks on end seemed pretty refreshing at this point.

"How much longer?" Ben began to sound like an bored kid on a road trip. The four of them had been walking for what seemed like hours at this point, and they still didn't see any sign of the dark trail ending. Ben felt a small pain in his stomach, pointing out his feeling of hunger.

"You think this is Pennywise's new plan?" Richie only half joked, "Get us to walk for hours on end so that were too tired to fight back when he tries to kill us? Because it's definitely working." Ben shivered at the thought of the clown. Was that why Eleven was down here? To hide from Pennywise? Or was she just another one of Pennywise's disguises. If she were another one of the clown'd disguises, then she probably would have killed them by then

"Shut up Richie." Ben demanded, too annoyed with today's events to give a damn about Richie's jokes.

"Are you even taking us back to Derry?" Beverly asked Eleven. Her doubts that they were even under Derry were growing, and she began to wonder if she would even get back home.

"No. To Mike. Almost There."

"Mike? Who is Mike? How do we get back home?" Bev had a worried tone in her shaking voice.

"Not home. To Mike." Eleven answered.

Bev stayed back for a second, stopping in her tracks, but eventually decided that wherever this girl was taking them had to be better than this dark tunnel, and caught up to them.

After what seemed to be five more minutes of walking, Eleven finally said the word "Here" quietly.

"Here? There's nothing here. I told you she was crazy-OW!" It was too dark for Richie to tell whether it was Bev or Ben who elbowed him in his rib cage.

Eleven went silent again. She held up her hand directly in front of her and squeezed her eyes shut. Bev had moved next to her and noticed that her nose was bleeding.

"Are you okay?" She said, wiping the blood from below her left nostril.

"Stop that." Eleven responded at once, lowering her hand. Beverly backed away and Eleven raised her hand in front of her again. More blood streamed out of her nose almost immediately and something white began to materialize in front of her. The three Losers gasped in amazement at what she was doing. It was nice to see supernatural abilities not being used to kill them for a change. Eleven kept her hand up and eventually the white in front of her materialized into a sort of passage with a glowing white door frame. It was at this moment that the Losers realized that Eleven was no ordinary human, but at least she wasn't a clown with a taste for human blood.

"Mike."

Eleven stepped through, followed by the three slightly hesitant teenagers. In front of them was a regular house standing in front of the starry night sky. Beverly somehow just knew that they weren't in Derry, Maine anymore.


	3. The Inside Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids call Mr. Clarke, who explains the Inside Out.

"Eleven?" Mike was leaving his basement to greet Eleven in the yard. 

"Mike." Eleven approached him, Bev, Ben, and Richie were behind her.

"Eleven who are these people? Damnit! Don't tell me I have to hide them in my basement too!"

"Lost." was her only reply. At this moment, a curly haired boy that none of the three teens recognized appeared in a distance. Dustin walked next to Mike.

"Wait," Mike looked at the three teens, wanting to talk to someone who spoke in full sentences, "You got lost in the Upside Down? And Eleven found you?" Richie looked behind himself to see if the doorway was still there. It wasn't.

"Inside Out. Not Upside Down." Eleven said, looking at Mike, who was clearly confuse

"The Inside Out?" Dustin sat on Mikes couch in the basement. Mike had taken Bev, Ben, and Richie into his basement so that they could resume talking. "Eleven, what is the Inside Out?"

"Is it related to the Upside Do

"Shit, Mike, if it were related to the Upside Down I would know about it, wouldn't I?"

"Well, how am I supposed to know? It was my only guess."

"It was a stupid one."

"Okay, guys, we have bigger problems here than whatever you two are fighting about. We need to get back home." Bev chimed in, interrupting the fighting.

"And we need to find Will." Mike responded. "We don't have time for this."

"How're we supposed to get back home?" Beverly became worried. was she really asking help from a couple of eleven-year-olds?

"We don't even know how you got here!" Mike exclaimed, "Plus, we're already dealing with a demigorgon and Will in the Upside Down and Lucas ignoring us!"

"Demigorgon?" Ben asked.

"It's a sort of monster that eats humans. We think he took our friend." Dustin answered.

"Oh, we know all about human-eating monsters." Ben said. Richie shivered and Bev moved uncomfortably in her seat.

"What do you mean?" Mike asked. Could the Losers have a demigorgon where they lived too?

"He's a sort of clown..." Bev said. Mike's face went from interested to confused. The answer was no. "But he can shape shift."

"He targets our fears and, when we're too weak to fight back, he... um.... tries to eat us." Ben said. Richie felt sick, remembering Pennywise's attack from only a couple hours ago.

"Shit. That's terrible." Dustin replied.

"His name is Pennywise. He just took our friend's little brother, and we've been trying to kill him... until recently..."

"Damnit, Bev, are you done telling them our life stories?" Richie rolled his eyes, irritated. "We need to get back home."

"Maybe we could get you a ride or a train ticket." Mike said, "I can see if my sister has any money. She's probably off 'studying' with Steve anyway."

"No. Inside Out." Eleven answered.

"What the hell is the Inside Out?"

"Wait," Dustin looked at Mike and nudged his arm. "Mr. Clarke!" The three Losers were lost at this point.

Mike's eyes went wide and he jumped out of his seat.

"Shit! we don't have school until Monday!" Mike exclaimed, grunting at their defeat.

"Wait... Isn't it a Wednesday?" Bev looked at Mike, clearly confused.

"No. Its a Saturday." Mike answered.

"November tenth, 1983." Dusting told the redhead.

"1983? No. It's June 1989!" Bev stood. "What the fuck?"

"I think were going to need more than Nancy's money to get them back home." Dustin frowned, "We're going to need a time machine and a miracle."

"Are you fucking with me? Is this a fucking joke? How the hell did we travel back to 1983? That's impossible." Richie exclaimed, visibly annoyed. No one paid attention to him.

"No. We need Mr. Clarke." Mike gasped. "Wait! We can call him!" Without waiting for a reply from anyone, he jumped up and dashed upstairs to get the phone. He'd wanted one in the basement, but his mom said he was too young, so he had to get the one in the kitchen. Only one problem.

"Mom, Get off the phone!" Mike yelled at his mother. She was standing next to the wall, playing with the phone cord as she gossiped into the phone.

"In a minute, honey," Mrs. Wheeler replied, covering the speaker of the phone with her hand, "I'm talking to Susan." And she resumed her gossip.

Shit! But hope wasn't lost. Mike zoomed to the stairs that led to the third floor. He then dashed to Nancy's room and slammed her door open, not waiting for an invitation that he knew he wouldn't receive.

"So we have the weapons, but how are we going to kill--Shit! Mike?" Mike had walked in on Nancy an Jonathan Byers, standing across from each other, Nancy's bed was between them. They seemed to be plotting something. There were multiple materials on the bed, but Mike was in too much of a rush to pay any attention to them.

"Nancy!!" Mike exclaimed, dashing to her blue phone, which was on the table beside her bed. "I need to borrow your phone."

"Why?"

"To... Uh... Call Lucas?" Mike stuttered, unplugging Nancy's phone wire from the wall."I'll give it back later!" Mike carried the blue phone as he dashed out of his older sister's bedroom and slammed the door shut. "thanks Nancy!" He shouted through the wall as he ran down the stairs.

"No running in the house!" His father called after him as he ran back through the doorway to the basement and joined the others.

"Mr. Clarke!" Dustin exclaimed into the phone with a grin.

"Is this Dustin Henderson?" The teacher responded, "Why are you calling me at ten o' clock on a Saturday?"

"Sir, I had a question about-"

"Can we save this for Monday? I was kind of... In the middle of something..." Dustin heard a female groan in the background and immediately understood why the science teacher wanted to hang up.

"I can't! It's really important!"

"Very well. What is your question?" The teacher sighed an annoyed sigh.

"Mr. Clarke, do you know anything about the Inside Out?" Dustin asked at once.

"The Inside Out? What is this about?" Mr. Clarke asked skeptically.

"Um... A.... oh! A story!" Dustin said unconvincingly.

"A story? I never saw you as much of a writer...."

"Oh I write stories all the time," Dustin lied, "But that's not the point! Can you please tell me what you know about the Inside Out."

"Well then," Mr. Clarke cleared his throat, "It's all theoretical, of course, but, in theory, the Inside out is a sort of hall. One that leads to... Other universes. But it would take a tremendous source of power to open the Inside Out and, of course, a lot of power to open a doorway into another universe."

Beverly frowned. None of the losers had been harnessing power to open a doorway to the Inside Out. They couldn't have.

"There are also, theoretically, multiple entrances to the Inside Out sprinkled throughout multiple universes--Of course, none of them have been located, for they're hidden. Disguised to look like they're not there at all."

"Okay, thank you, Mr.-"

"Oh, and one more thing: Once you open a doorway to the Inside Out, that entrance shuts down, forever." At these words, all of the kids looked at each other, their mouths were hanging open.

"We're fucking stuck here!?" Richie exclaimed a little too loudly, feeling pissed. The kids heard Mike's dad shout "Language" from upstairs, and, very quietly, Richie heard Beverly whisper "Beep beep, Richie."

"Excuse me, Dustin?" Mr. Clarke asked over the phone.

"Uh... Nothing!"

"Is there something your not telling-" Dustin hung up at once, not wanting to continue the conversation.

"Shit." Dustin whispered.

"There has to be another way back home!" Bev exclaimed with a frown.

"There is." Eleven spoke for the first time in a long time.

"What are you-" Mike was cut off by the lights flickering on and off. "Shit." All of the kids looked to Ben, who was nurturing a cut on his finger that had formed when he was holding Henry Bower's open pocket knife. In only a minute, Nancy and Jonathan came dashing down the stairs. Jonathan was holding a spiked bat and Nancy had a gun. The three Losers backed up, but Mike, Dustin, and Eleven just stared at the two older teens.

"Shit!" Nancy shouted, holding on tightly to the handgun she was carrying. The lights continued to flicker and Nancy and Jonathan looked around hurriedly at their surroundings. "Shit! Where the hell is it?"

"We didn't set up any traps! We're not ready yet!" Jonathan shouted, readying his spiked wooden bat.

"Nancy what the hell is happening?" Mike shouted at his sister.

"It's coming." Was the only reply he received from his worried sister.


	4. The Losers Club Meet The Demogorgon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids fight off the Demogorgon, but couldn't stop it from taking some one with it...

"Nancy What the hell are you talking--The demigorgon?" Mike looked at his sister, wide-eyed and confused. Nancy kept spinning slowly, holding the handgun in front of her, ready to shoot if she sees the monster appear. The lights continued to flicker on and off as the children, excluding Nancy and Jonathan, panicked. How would they fight off this thing?

"Yes! You have to get out of here! Jonathan and I were planning on setting traps to kill it at his house, but I guess one of you accidentally summoned it here..." She eyed Ben, who was nurturing his bloodied wound. 

"But how?" Beverly asked, wondering what could have possibly helped the monster locate them. Jonathon looked at the thirteen-year-old and realized that he didn't notice three of the six kids in the room. But now wasn't the time for an introduction. 

"Blood! The Demigorgon can sense when someone is bleeding!" Ben felt Richie elbow him softly and whisper "Great job, klutz". Jonathon continued to move around, trying to be as ready as humanly possible for when the monster appeared. 

"That's how it found my friend, Barb..." Nancy paused for a second, looked at the ground for a quick second, and looked back up, keeping a vigilant eye on her surroundings.

"And Will..." Mike said quietly. 

"Yeah, well, that's why we need to kill this thing when it arrives. And then, we can somehow find a way to get Barb and Nancy back here." Jonathon said, looking at Will. Bev and Ben made eye contact in the flickering lights. Jonathan and Nancy reminded the two of them of their friend Bill Denbrough, who was still hell-bent on finding his baby brother. Who probably knew, deep down inside, that little Georgie Denbrough would not be making it home. What if their friends, Will and Barb, wouldn't be returning home either?

The eight of them waited for what seemed like a couple minutes in silence, but the monster never came out in the open. 

"Maybe it isn't actually coming?" Dustin suggested, hopefully. 

"No. It is." Nancy replied automatically, "You kids should leave now, Stay safe." 

"We're not leaving you two to fight it alone." Mike put her idea down, "We're helping you fight."

"The hell we are! I'm not staying here to get eaten by some monster!" Richie shouted at Mike.

"Well, from what I've heard, you've faced much worse than a demigorgon!" Mike shot back, grabbing a slingshot off of the table nest to the couch. He pulled the string, testing its flexibility, and looked around for an object to shoot at the demigorgon with it. 

"Yes," Beverly cut in, gripping the bat that she had used against Henry Bowers in her hand, "But he's usually a pussy then, too."

"Shut up!" Richie exclaimed. Ben chuckled and Richie shot him an annoyed look. 

"Do you have anything to help fight it at least?" Mike asked the trashmouth, rolling his eyes. He had expected Richie to be a bit braver than he was, considering the stories that the losers told them. 

"Only a few rocks from a couple of hours ago..." Richie stated, panicking.

"Give them to me." Mike ordered. Richie emptied his pockets onto the table beside the couch to reveal eight rocks. Mike picked them up to examine them. "Perfect." He said, putting a rock on the string of his slingshot and pulling the string to test it out.

Ben had wrapped his bloodied finger with a tissue and gripped the handle of Henry Bower's pocket knife in his left hand, not wanting to reopen the wound on his right hand when gripping the knife. 

"Wait!" Dustin shouted at Nancy and Jonathan, holding up his empty hand. 

"Shit, Dustin, we don't have any other weapons on us, we kind of thought that we would be fighting this thing alone!" Nancy responded. Dustin sighed and picked up a nearby lamp. It was the best he had at the moment, and he would have to learn to work with it. 

"Oh my--" Jonathan's mouth hung open as he stared at something behind the six kids. All of them whipped their heads around to see the tall grey monster, looming over them, ready to feast. 

"Holy Shit!" Richie stumbled backwards, backing into Mike, who got knocked back from the impact. As Mike was falling backwards, he tried to grip onto something to gain stability and stand up again, but ended up knocking the lamp out of Dustin's hand, leaving it to shatter on the ground. 

"What the!--" Dustin stumbled backwards and the rocks that Richie had given him rolled were all over the floor by now. Ben would have whispered "Great going, klutz," to Richie, if he weren't trying to put distance between himself and the monster. He ended up standing beside Jonathan. Beverly, who's hands were now shaking, swung the bat and hit the Demigorgon hard. The monster, unsurprisingly, didn't budge. It instead let out a great roar and attempted to grab the Beverly, who fearfully jumped back, still gripping the bat tightly.

Nancy aimed her gun at the monster and pulled the trigger, firing away at the Demigorgon. They bounced off of the faceless creature, not harming him at all. 

"Shit!" She exclaimed, throwing the gun onto the ground out of anger, "The bullets don't work! Jonathan, you try!" 

The kids dashed out of Jonathan's way for him to try and hit the monster with his spiked bat, but the demigorgon was done with standing still. 

The demigorgon angrily jumped on top of Dustin, and opened the five flaps on it's head to reveal layers of teeth. Dustin shouted various curse words, but they could barely be heard at all over the Demigorgon's loud roar. Jonathan wasted no time in dashing over to the monster and hitting it in the side of it's ribs hard with his spiked bat, the nails sinking into the monster's skin. 

The Demigorgon let out another roar, but this one was a pained roar. Jonathan's face lit up. it was working! He hit the Demigorgon hard with the spiked bat a second and a third time, until it finally hopped off of Dustin, who was left on the ground, grunting and cussing loudly.

"Are you okay, man?" Jonathan held out his hand for Dustin to take. 

"Shit, Shit, Shit!" Dustin exclaimed, jumping onto his feet with Jonathan and Nancy's assistance. It was at that moment when the lights stopped flickering and some of the children, including Dustin and Jonathan, let out a sigh of relief. 

"Gone." Eleven said with a relieved tone. 

"Yeah," Ben said, panting, "So is Richie."


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back in Derry, Maine, the remaining Losers have reunited and are looking for the missing one, though events take a turn for the worst when Pennywise greets them in the woods.

"W-W-Where the hell is h-he?" Bill Denbrough stuttered, pacing the arcade in a panic while looking for Richie. Richie, Bev, and Ben had been missing for a day and a half. He was worried sick. "D-D-Damnit! We n-n-never s-s-sh-should h-h-have s-split u-up!"

"I don't get it!" Eddie Kaspbrak exclaimed, "He said multiple times that he was planning on spending most of the summer beating his high score on Street Fighter at the arcade." Eddie looked at Stanley Uris on is right, who shrugged, and then to Mike Hanlon on his left, who said "I don't know..." Eddie and the others were also very concerned with their missing friends, considering the fact that there's a murderous shape shifting clown on the loose. 

"Th-Th-Th-This s-sucks. We c-c-cant find R-R-R-Richie. We can't f-f-f-find B-Beverly. W-W-We c-can't f-find Ben!" Bill grunted, looking at the Street Fighter game, where Richie said he would be. "S-S-S-S-Shit!" 

"Do you th-think that they were abducted by-" Stan began darkly. He always seemed to be looking at the worst aspect of every situation. 

"No." Bill interrupted Stan, refusing to think that his friends were taken by the clown. 

"Well, maybe the Bowers Gang got them?" Eddie suggested with a shrug. He wanted to be more helpful than this, but didn't have any other explanation. 

"No. I saw the Bowers Gang this morning. They tried to chase me down and everything. But there were no Ben or Richie or Bev." Mike said.

"B-B-Besides, Henry B-Bowers is a B-B-Bully, but h-he's n-n-n-never tried t-to kid-n-nap u-us." Bill shot down the idea at once. 

"Why the fuck else would they go missing?" Stan half-shouted as the Losers continued to walk through the arcade and look for the trashmouth. "None of their parents know where they are, and we've been looking for them all over Derry for hours!" 

"Sh-Sh-Shhit!, I-I d-d-don't know!" Bill hated this, "B-B-But w-w-we n-n-need t-t-t-to f-find t-t-t-them." This was one of the many times when Bill wished that he could make his stutter disappear. 

"Maybe we should split up, to continue looking for them-" Eddie suggested. He thought it was a good idea, but, apparently, Bill disagreed.

"N-No. T-T-The o-o-others a-are g-g-g-gone be-because we s-s-s-split up. W-W-W-Were not d-doing it again." Bill shot his idea down and continued to look for Richie in the arcade. No luck.

The Losers decided to leave the arcade and met rode their bikes to the Kissing Bridge. This was one of the last places that they had not checked for the missing Losers. 

"Shit! They're not here! Where the fuck could they be!" Eddie stood in front of the Kissing Bridge and threw a rock he found on the ground. It hit the wooden fence that went along the entrance to the Kissing Bridge. Eddie looked at the bench and knelt in front of it. He had heard in rumors that some couples in high school came here to make out, and, sometimes, do a lot more than that. 

The wooden fence had many carvings on it. Eddie looked at it and immediately shivered at the thought of splinters. He would never be touching this thing. The carvings were mostly of people's initials. Some of them were the initials of people in relationships. One example Eddie saw was a B + S. The other carvings were just initials of one person's name. Eddie saw one that said G W.

But one of the carvings stood out to the young hypochondriac. This carving was neither the initials of someone's name nor the initials of two lovers. First of all, this carving looked like it was made more recently than most of the others. The other carvings seemed a little bit older, almost faded. This one looked fresh. Second of all, this looked like a halfway carved initials of names in a relationship. Third of all, Eddie thought he knew who carved it:

R +

"G-Guys... I think Richie carved--Guys?" Eddie stood and looked around, getting scared. "GUYS! WHERE THE FUCK--"

"Eddie! Over here!" Mike's voice called. Eddie whipped his head around as he looked for the source of the voice. Mike and Stan and Bill crowding around something. 

"What the fuck?" Eddie walked to them and groaned, kicking a couple of rocks as he walked to the group. "What are you--" The boys moved to reveal a familiar-looking bike to Eddie Kaspbrak. "Jesus. Fucking. Christ." Bill got on his feet and backed up a step. "Is that..."

"Ben's b-b-bike." Bill confirmed the hypochondriac's guess. 

"Oh shit!" Eddie exclaimed, backing up a step and cupping his shaking hands over his mouth, "This is bad."

"Maybe he's in the woods?" Mike suggested, getting on his feet, followed by Stan, who wiped the dirt and grass stains off of his grey trousers. 

"M-M-M-Maybe." Bill stuttered, looking into the mass of trees In front of him. 

"It's worth a shot." Stan shrugged. Bill then walked slowly into the woods, followed by Eddie, Mike, and Stan. 

"BEN?" Eddie shouted as he walked through the woods, holding his hands around his mouth to amplify the volume of his voice. "BEN!"

"BEN!" Mike walked ahead of the group to the right.

"G-Guys?" Bill and Eddie turned around to see Stan kneeling down on the ground, looking at some grass in front of him. Eddie walked closer to the grass and Bill walked behind Eddie. 

"Oh my fucking god! I'll be sick!" Eddie exclaimed. Mike joined them and observed the dry blood on the grass.

"No!" Mike's mouth hung open. He couldn't-- wouldn't believe it!

"I-I-Is th-th-th-that B-Ben's?" Bill's jaw dropped. Shit!

"I think so." Was Stan's answer. 

"It's blood. Not a body. He must still be out there somewhere... We need to find him."

"M-M-M-Mike's right. Every one, l-l-l-l-look f-f-for him... H-H-He has t-t-to be around h-h-h-here somewhere." Bill ordered. 

"We need to split up." Mike told Bill, "If Ben's in real trouble, then he might not have too much time left... The quicker we find him, the sooner he gets taken care of." 

"F-F-F-Fine." Bill stuttered, "W-W-We s-s-s-split up." He looked around at each of the remaining Losers with a serious expression. "B-B-But, if y-y-y-y-you n-need any help at a-a-all, j-j-j-just yell. 

So the Losers split up in four directions, trying to find Ben (and maybe Bev or Richie) as quickly as possible. 

Eddie walked through the woods, looking around for Ben with a determined mind set. He would find Ben. He would nurse Ben back to health. He would not catch any diseases in the process. Eddie constantly checked himself for ticks every couple seconds, just shivering at the thought of getting lymes disease. He continued walking through the woods and made a couple turns in the process. He kept walking until he stopped at a log in the middle of his path. But it wasn't the log that took his undivided attention. It was the teenage boy sitting on the log, his back facing Eddie. Eddie noticed the palm trees on the collared shirt almost immediately. 

"Shit--Richie? We've been looking all over for... Richie?" Eddie should've known that this was too good to be true. That finding Richie alone in the woods was just a fantasy of his, but he didn't come to his senses until the familiar figure turned around to reveal it's face. 

Eddie was revolted as soon as it turned around. It had Richie's face... Almost. Richie's pupils were gone, replaced completely by small, completely white eyes. That wasn't the worse part, though. The worst part was the red lines going down through his eyes and connecting with his red mouth. He recognized this almost immediately as Pennywise's trademark feature. 

"SHIT! FUCK! BILL! MIKE! STAN! SHIT!" Eddie fell on his but and scuttled backwards, eventually bumping into a tree. He pulled out his inhaler from his red fanny pack, feeling an asthma attack coming on in the midst of his panic. The figure that clearly wasn't Richie stood up and slowly walked toward the fearful hypochondriac, who was cringing at the multiple spiders and bugs crawling out of the fake trashmouth's mouth, 

"Come here, Eddie Spaghetti, lets play a game." The creature growled in a lower version of Richie's voice. Bugs continued to crawl out of it's mouth as it walked closer to Eddie. "How about... Truth or dare?" 

"Get-Get-Shit!" Eddie tried to back up more, but was immediately reminded of the tree behind him. Shit!

When Bill heard Eddie's shouts and screams, he was already deep into the woods, but he turned around as fast as possible and ran towards the voice. Along the way, Stan and Mike had caught up with him and the three of them rushed towards the sound. 

"--BILL! MIKE! STAN! SHIT!" The three Losers were panicking as they ran, and their worries greatly increased when the screams went silent.

"Shit! Where is he?" Stan shouted as they ran after their friend.

"I... I don't..." The three of them came to a stop in the now dark woods when they ran into a log with a bunch of spiders crawling away from one spot. Above the log were dozens of red balloons. The three Losers knew what this meant. Their clown friend had paid a visit to Eddie. 

"Shit!" Stan knelt against a tree and held up Eddie's inhaler in his shaking hands. 

"Oh my god." 

"W-W-W-W-Where d-did you f-f-find th-th-this? Bill stuttered as Stan passed him the inhaler.

"Right here." Stan pointed at the ground in front of the tree. 

"I kn-kn-kn-knew we sh-sh-sh-shouldn't have s-s-s-s-split up!" Bill grunted. Stan backed away from th scene, shaking in fear. Bill looked down at his watch, pocketing Eddie's inhaler. It was half passed eight, and he needed to get home. "L-L-Look, I n-need t-t-to get h-h-h-home. M-Meet me t-t-t-tomorrow m-morning b-back at th-th-the Kissing B-Bridge." 

And so the three left to go home, entering the woods with four and exiting the woods with three. 

Now, Stan thought darkly, Now most of my best friends are most likely dead. 

(A/N: Hi, guys!! Thank you all so much for reading my story, it means a lot to me. Let me know in the comments whether or not you would like more Reddie stuff to take place in later chapters. : )


	6. Richie's Upside Down Adventures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richie wakes up in the Upside Down and barely escapes the demogorgon. Meanwhile, Eddie wakes up and is automatically greeted by Pennywise.

Richie woke up at once, immediately noticing a gross smell. His vision was blurry, for he didn't have his glasses on for some reason, but he could see enough to make a ghostly blue light around him. Richie stood on his feet, utterly confused at where he was or what was happening

"Sh-Shit!" Richie shouted, checking all of his pockets, "Where the fuck are my glasses?" After not finding them in any of his pockets, the boy got on the ground and felt the cold, hard floor for the glasses. After about a minute, Richie found them and put them back on his face with a grunt.

"Where the hell am I?" Richie asked himself quietly as he stood back up. The scenery was familiar--almost. It looked like Mike Wheeler's basement, but with vines everywhere. The room was illuminated by a blue light. The basement was deserted.

"Guys?" Richie walked around the basement, looking for his missing friends. There was no sight of them anywhere. "Fuck--Where are you all?" Once Richie was sure that he had searched the whole basement, Richie moved on to the upstairs to continue his search. "Ben? Bev? Eleven?" No luck. The upstairs looked pretty normal, except for the fact that the scenery was still blue and there were still vines everywhere. There were vines on the sink and climbing up table and chair legs.

"Shit! where are you-" He was interrupted by the sound of a low and familiar growl. He turned around to look at the faceless monster, his heart was pounding inside his chest.

"Oh fuck." Richie gasped as the Demigorgon let out a loud roar. Without any more thinking, Richie turned and rand back into the basement and out through the garage door. The Demigorgon actually wasn't as fast as the trashmouth thought he would be-- But that wasn't a reason for him to slow down. Richie left the house and ran as fast as he could through the street, panicking as he left Mike's house behind in his tracks. Richie noticed that the air seemed to get harder and harder to breath in the longer he was here.

The boy ran for what seemed like thirty minutes when he arrived in the backyard of a house that was smaller then Mike's house. In the back yard was a makeshift wooden fort with vines crawling up the wood. On the fort was a piece of wood that read "Castle Byers", and another one on top of that one that read "All Friends Welcome".

"Okay," Richie looked at the fort with a relieved sigh, "Maybe I'll find a hiding spot in here... Anything to get away from this fucking monster." Richie slowly stepped inside of Castle Byers and was immediately taken aback by the sight of a boy pinned against the wall by some sticky material he seemed to be wet with a sort of goo... and sleeping. There was a alien-like tentacle attached to his mouth.

The boy obviously needed help. Richie stepped closer to him, ignoring the feeling of weakness that's been slowly growing inside of him ever since he came here.

"What the fuck?" Richie was attempting to pull the tentacle thing off of the boy, but it was latching onto him, refusing to come off. Richie felt his muscles begin to ache. the air was poisoning him. He felt more lightheaded than before and noticed that he was beginning to loose his desperate grip on his consciousness. Richie pulled and pulled, but the tentacle thing wouldn't budge. He then attempted to pull the boy out of whatever sticky white substance was keeping him on the wall, but he was too weak to make any progress. He felt himself drifting into unconsciousness. It was inevitable.

Knees trembling, the trashmouth fell onto the ground, and didn't even try to get up from the ground. He lied there motionless as he drifted int a deep sleep, not noticing when another tentacle-like creature identical to the one on the other boy latched onto Richie's mouth. If he were awake, Richie would've been pushing it away, battling this overpowering feeling of drowsiness. But he wasn't, and there was nothing stopping him from ending up just like William Byers.

\---------------------------------------------------------

Eddie Kaspbrak woke with a gasp.

"Where the fuck--" He sat up, coughing and wheezing. He couldn't find his inhaler, but he usually carried a backup inhaler. Eddie reached for his red fanny pack, but, to his utter horror, realized that the fanny pack and his second fanny pack were both missing, nowhere to be seen. Eddie stood, attempting to control his breath.

"What the hell?" Eddie gasped as he looked around at his surroundings. It was dark and dingy. Everything around him looked rusty and old. "Is anyone there?"

Eddie suddenly remembered the events of last night (Or however long ago it was, for he couldn't exactly tell how long ago the events took place). He remembered seeing Richie-- no, not Richie, a messed up version of Richie-- in the woods and then passing out. Which meant, wherever he was, Pennywise was nearby.

"I see you, Eddie..." Eddie jumped, fear fulling his brain. His face was stuck in a frozen terror. He turned around to see who this voice had come from.

Eddie thought that that he would be greeted with the messed-up Richie he had seen recently or the leper he had seen before, but, this time, the murderous clown decided to skip the extra stuff and greet Eddie in his true form. Eddie stumbled backwards, making terrified noises as he did so.

"Shi- Shit!" Eddie shouted, scuffling backwards to make distance between himself and the clown. Pennywise laughed, revealing a huge grin. "No!"

"Scared, Eddie?" Eddie continued to back up when he thought back to Pennywise's fucked up version of Richie.

"What did you do to Richie?" Eddie stopped scuttling backwards and stood. While he was obviously still frightened of the thought of being eaten by a murderous clown-- and that scared Eddie very much-- he also needed to be sure that Richie was safe, and wasn't going to fall to the same fate that Eddie seemed to have at the moment. Richie came first.

Pennywise was visibly confused that Eddie had automatically thought of Richie and not himself, but continued to try and intimidate the already scared boy. Pennywise stepped closer to Eddie in a fast manner, knocking the boy onto his butt.

"Richie's the least of your worries..." The clown grinned, most likely fantasizing about how he would feast on the boy.

"Tell me where he is!" Eddie received no response. Eddie wasn't going to get anything out of the clown. And what help would he be to Ben and Beverly and Richie if he didn't even put up a fight to get out of this... place alive. Eddie had made up his mind to try and escape, so he turned around, providing no warning for the clown, and sprinted at full speed. He needed to get the fuck out of here. For the Losers.

But Pennywise was faster. Eddie thought he was going to make it out alive for only a little bit, until the clown jumped out from behind a corner unexpectedly and grabbed both of the boy's shaking shoulders. Pennywise lifted Eddie up and opened his mouth, but not just his mouth...

The clown's whole face was opening, and, inside of his face, there were three bright orbs slowly spinning. Eddie became transfixed by the three orbs and felt himself slipping away into unconsciousness. What was happening? Eddie gave into unconsciousness very quickly and entered a state of being frozen in the air. The last thing he saw before slipping into a horrifying nightmare was the clown's open face and many rows of teeth.

He had entered the deadlights.


	7. Eleven Takes A Bath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eleven checks on Richie and Will and Barb to see if they are still alive.

"Oh my god! Oh my god!" Dustin yelled as he paced back and forth in Mikes basement, still recovering from the attack from the Demogorgon.

"We need to get him back!" Beverly shouted at Nancy and Jonathan. "We need to save him!" 

"Um, Hello?" Mike cut in, "We're already saving Will here?"

"Can't we save both of them? Richie is just as important as Will-" 

"If the Demogorgon took Will to the upside down... wouldn't Richie be there too?" Nancy suggested, ignoring the kids' bickering. She then looked at Eleven, who had been quiet lately, as an idea had struck her. "Eleven... You opened the gate to the Upside Down, right?" Eleven nodded, looking at Nancy. "Is there a way you could contact them, or check on them? On Barb and Will and Richie?"

Eleven nodded. 

"Great!" Jonathan smiled. Finally, something seemed to be going right.

"Supplies." Eleven looked to Jonathan and then to Nancy. Mike walked up to her with a serious expression on his face. 

"You need supplies to do it?" El nodded. "What supplies?" Mike looked at her, questioning whether or not they will be able to get the materials. All of the kids' heads shot up at once when they heard the doorbell ring twice.

"Bad men?" Eleven asked Mike fearfully. 

"Wait..." Bev looked at Mike, "Bad men? Is it the--"

"It's not the demogorgon! Mike stood and dashed to the basement window. Sure enough, six black SUVs were parked in their driveway. "Shit!" 

"Mike?" Eleven touched his arm. 

"It's the bad men. We need to go." Mike opened his basement door and ran through it, followed by the others. The group of kids immediately headed to Jonathan's car and got inside. Though all seven of them couldn't fit in the seats, the kids in the back did their best to squeeze together with Nancy and Jonathan in the front, Jonathan driving. 

Jonathan swerved left and got onto the road. He and Nancy had put most of the weapons in the trunk of the car except for Nancy's gun, just in case she needed to use it. 

Mike forgot that he was gripping onto his walkie talkie until he heard the static sound, followed by Lucas's panicked voice. 

"Mike! You need to leave you're house! Over!"

"We know and were on the road. Over."

"Where are you going? Over." 

"Uh--" Mike looked to Jonathan, who looked at him through the rear view mirror. 

"My house." Jonathan answered. 

"Will's house. Were going to try to get Eleven to tap into the Upside Down to see if Will's okay. Then we're going to try to figure out how to save him. Over."

"Copy that. I'll meet you there. Over." 

"Bring a weapon. Over."

The car continued to zoom down the road at a speed that was much higher than the speed limit permitted and reached the Byers' house in a couple of minutes. The seven people dashed to the door in a panic. Jonathan felt around frantically in his pockets for his house key, but couldn't find it. 

"Shit! Shit! We're totally busted! Oh shit!" Dustin freaked out despite Mike's best efforts to calm him down. 

"I lost the key." Jonathan finally admitted this after a minute of searching. 

"Then how are we supposed to--"

"Move." Eleven gave Jonathan and Nancy a cold stare and they moved out of her way so that she had access to front door. Eleven then looked at the door with the same cold stare and held up one arm. After what seemed like forever but was only a couple of seconds, they heard a click and then the slowly swung open. Everyone dashed in, fearing that Eleven's tormentors would catch up to them. Jonathan rushed to the kitchen with Nancy and Eleven, suddenly remembering that his mom always kept a spare key under the welcome mat because he always lost his own. 

Nancy and Jonathan sat Eleven down at a table in the kitchen. Bev, Ben, and Dustin stayed in the living room while Dustin explained who these government people are. Mike stayed at the door, making sure that no one would get in uninvited. 

Nearly five minutes later, the group jumped at the sound of a harsh knock on the door. 

"Who is it?" Mike shouted through the door. He didn't receive an answer. Instead, he heard footsteps on the porch and saw Lucas's head pop up through the hole in the wall that Joyce had created. 

"Who do you think it is, dipshit?" Lucas said.

"Uh.. I don't know, maybe the agents of Hawkins Lab who are trying to hunt and take Eleven as we speak. Mike turned and unlocked the door to let Lucas in. 

"Woah, who are these?" 

"Not from around here. Long story. Now get in so I can lock the door." 

"I hope they're okay, Hopp. I already have one kid missing because of this... thing. I don't need any more missing kids." Joyce Byers tried hard not to panic as Hopper kept a determined look on his face and continued down the road. 

"They're going to be fine, Joyce, now where are we going?" Jim Hopper replied, keeping his eyes on the road. 

"My house. I know Jonathan may be there... But not if--"

"Hey." Hopper grabbed Joyce's hand in an attempt to calm her down while still keeping his eyes on the road. "Don't think like that. We don't know that that... Demo-thing has taken anyone else. 

"I know... It's just... Here!" Joyce pointed to her home as it entered their view. She sighed in relief once she saw that her son's car was parked there. Hopper slowed down and stopped the car in front of the Byers' home. the two got out of the car and Joyce bolted to the door. 

"Jonathan, honey open up, it's me, mom!" Joyce shouted as she wrapped her knuckles on the door. The door then opened and Joyce was, to her surprise, greeted by Mike. She continued to enter the house and was further surprised to see seven other kids, including her son, in the house. Two of which she had never seen before. "Oh?"

Jonathan walked out of the kitchen and looked at Hopper, holding a list of needed materials in his right hand. 

"We need a large space and a shitload of salt." 

The ten people adults stood in the gym. They had just finished gathering many materials and preparing the tub that Eleven would be using to try to reach Barb and Will and Richie.

While driving to the school gym, the kids had explained the whole situation with Bev and Richie and Ben, but the adults decided to handle one problem at a time. 

Bev looked at the tub, a worried frown on her face. Richie would have probably said something like "So were watching this chick take a bath? Sweet." and she would've said "Beep beep, Richie." A tear formed in her eye and she looked down in an attempt to hide it. 

"Are you sure this will work?" Joyce asked Eleven hopefully. "You're going to make sure my boy is okay?" Eleven nodded as Hopper finished covering the swimming goggles in black duct tape and handed them to her. "Thank you." Joyce embraced El in a motherly hug. Eleven, surprised but delighted, hugged Joyce back. After a couple of seconds in the warm hug, Jim patted Eleven on the shoulder. 

"Come on. Let's get this done with." Hopper said as she backed away from Joyce and faced the pool. El stepped into the pool and sat in the center of it. She then put the duct-taped goggles on her face and laid with her arms and legs spread wide as she began to enter the void. Mike watched eagerly on Eleven's left. After a minute or two of silence, Joyce grew restless and began to speak. 

"Do you see him? Do you see my Will?" She asked. Ben sat next to her, wanting to comfort her in some sort of way, but realized that she didn't even know him. 

Eleven nodded. "Alive."

"He's alive?" Joyce began to cry tears of joy. 

"What about Richie?-" Bev asked eagerly.

"Barb!" Nancy interrupted. Bev eyed Nancy with an annoyed look. 

"No, look for Rich-"

"He hasn't even been in the Upside Down as long-"

"Quiet." El nodded. The room went silent and a minute or two passed until Eleven spoke again. "Alive."

"Barb?" Nancy had a hopeful expression on her face. She couldn't bare the idea of Barb being gone forever... But Eleven shook her head, indicating that Richie was the one who was still alive. "What about Barb?" 

This pause was the longest of all, and Eleven's facial expressions gave her answer away before she even spoke. Nancy's hopefulness began to plummet. 

Eleven sat up, panting and frantically taking off her goggles. She looked at Nancy with a miserable look in her eyes.

"Gone."

"Gone? As in, like,... dead?" Nancy's worst nightmare became a reality. Eleven nodded, wearing an empathetic expression on her face. 

The adults were about to leave the school. Joyce and Hopper were driving to Hawkins Lab to try to find Will and Richie in the Upside Down.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Hopper asked Joyce, opening the passenger door to his truck for her.

"He's my son, Hopp. I'm going." Was her final answer. There was no changing her mind. 

"WAIT" Before Hopper made it to the driver's seat, he heard Beverly's voice and turned his head to see her running at full speed to the truck. 

"Oh, no. Not gonna happen." Hopper shut her down.

"I'm going with you."

"No."

"I'm saving my friend. I'm going with you. Beside's, Richie doesn't know either of you. He'll want to see some one he recognizes when he comes back."

"Great. I'm guessing you didn't bring an adult from your universe over here?" Hopper asked sarcastically. 

"All the adults in my universe are pieces of shit!" Bev wore a determined face as she stared at Hopper, "And I can handle this. I've been through worse."

"You're just a kid!"

"Let her come, Hopper." Joyce spoke up into the argument. Hopper sighed and opened the backseat door. Beverly gave Joyce an appreciative look before climbing into the back seat. She suddenly wished that she hadn't left her bat in the cafeteria with the other kids.


	8. Beverly's Chat With Dr. Brenner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the kids in the cafeteria prepare to fight the beast, Hopper Beverly and Joyce get caught trying to sneak into Hawkins Lab.

"Pudding." Mike said softly as he handed a spoon and a chocolate pudding cup to a shaking Eleven. Ben sat across from Mike, not talking to anyone. He was just waiting for Bev to get back from the bathroom, where she told him she was going. 

"We need to get everyone prepared." Nancy and Jonathan came into the Cafeteria carrying a box. "Hopper and Joyce and Beverly are gone, so its up to us to protect ourselves in case the Hawkins Lab agents or the Demogorgon find us."

"Gone? No, she's just going to the bathroom!" Ben was visibly confused.

"No, she left with Hopper and Joyce to find my brother and your friend." Jonathan shot back. Nancy went quiet, still struggling 

"She lied to me?" Why would she lie to him? He took this a little more painfully than he probably should have. Jonathan shrugged. 

"What are you? In love or something?" Mike mocked Ben, who's ears went red.

"Yeah, so?" Ben was beginning to dislike the boy, who started to remind him more and more of Richie. Mike already looked like an eleven-year-old Richie without glasses. He acted like it, too. 

"Ew, gross!" Ben rolled his eyes. 

"Oh, I think it's sweet," Nancy smiled at the boy, making Ben blush. "She's lucky to have you."

"Very sweet," Jonathan dumped the contents of the box out, revealing multiple weapons and traps, "However, while Jim and Joyce are out finding Will, we're going to kill this son of a bitch Demogorgon."

"What?" Dustin shouted, throwing his eleventh empty pudding cup on the ground. "You're going to lure it here?"

"If we don't kill it, who knows how many other Wills and Barbs there will be lost in the Upside Down, wondering whether or not they'll ever see their family again?" Mike spoke up, "I think it's a great idea."

"But if it gets another one of us--" Dustin began. 

"Oh, stop being a pussy!" Lucas said as he walked to the table that Jonathan had dumped the materials onto, "And help us plan the traps."

Hopper stood in front of the metal gate to Hawkins lab with Joyce and Bev behind him, shivering in the cold. Beverly was still dealing with moving from the summer in Derry to the winter in Hawkins. 

Hopper was using bolt cutters in an attempt to cut through the gate. This, of course, took a couple minutes of applying all of his strength as the girls behind him watched out for any approaching guards. So far, there seemed to be none. 

"Come on, Hopp! Before we get caught!" Joyce exclaimed impatiently.

"Quiet! Just a little longer!"

"How much longer?" This time it was Beverly, who was growing more and more anxious by the minute. Her whole life seemed to be spiraling downwards until her inevitable gruesome death by one of the not one, but TWO human-eating monsters who both seemed to have a thing for children meat that she's encountered. The fact that they were going into the place that the Demogorgon emerged from didn't help at all. Then there's the fact that they have a very low chance of getting back home, due to the gate that led to Derry sealing after the three Losers accidentally used it. But she was doing this for Richie. He was a Loser, and Losers protect each other at all costs. 

"I'm sorry, do you want to try breaking into a top-security Government lab? It's not as easy as one may think." Hopper shot back as Joyce laid a hand on Bev's shoulder. Beverly rolled her eyes and continued to look for approaching guards in an attempt to take her mind off of the stress that this whole situation brought. After a few more minutes, Hopper finally pulled away from the gate and said "Done." 

Beverly turned her head to see a hole that was a little smaller than Hopper's size. She'd barely have to duck to go through the hole. 

Hopper went through first and pulled out his gun, in case any one approached them out of the darkness of night. He was followed by Joyce, who waited on the other side for Beverly to cross through. Beverly was standing next to them in a few seconds, standing next to Joyce. Beverly actually really liked the adults here. They seemed to be a huge improvement from all of the adults she knew back at home. It felt good not to be judged so harshly by all of the adults and most of the kids in Derry. It felt good not having to run from Greta and her goons calling her Beaverly. And, most of all, it felt good not being at home and avoiding her terrible father at all costs. 

Beverly never told anyone this, but, before she found Richie dashing out of the arcade and bursting into tears on the day that they had the fight, she had escaped a fight with her angry father by locking herself in her room and climbing out of her window. She then found the baseball bat that she would later use in a nearby dumpster and carried it with her as a weapon to use against any enemy she ran into. 

The three of them continued to walk towards the lab, Hopper walking slowly and aiming his gun in pretty much every direction while keeping Joyce and Beverly behind him. They only lasted twenty steps until they were stopped by a voice that made all of their hearts pound. 

"FREEZE!" The three of them stood closer together as tons of soldiers with guns stepped out of the darkness. 

Dustin got a large knife from the Kitchen. Lucas carried his slingshot, hoping to shoot a couple rocks into the Demogorgon's mouth. Nancy carried two steak knives from the kitchen. Jonathan carried the spiked bat. Mike carried a lighter and bug repellent that he found in the science lab (This was Ben's idea). Ben had put nails in Beverly's bat, hoping she didn't mind. Eleven had her powers The traps were set around the cafeteria and the seven kids stood in the center of the cafeteria, weapons drawn. 

"So... How are we going to get it here?" Mike said quietly.

"We summon it." Nancy held a knife to the palm of her hand.

"Shit! Really?" Dustin exclaimed. Nancy gave him an annoyed glance before pressing the knife into her palm, drawing blood. Ben winced at her pain and was reminded of the Bowers Gang cutting into his stomach just a couple of days ago. Dustin looked away. 

"Bandage." Nancy held her wounded hand out for Jonathan to bandage. Jonathan wrapped the band tight around her hand and then tied it. 

"So... what now?" Lucas asked, readying his slingshot. 

"We wait." Jonathan answered him, throwing the bandage wrap back into the box. 

"But it might take a while..." Nancy said. "It did the last time some one summoned it here..." She eyed Ben, who's ears went red in embarrassment. Nancy looked back to Lucas. "I'd give it ten minutes." 

"HELLO?" Beverly shouted at the top of her lounges. The guards had taken her away from Hopper and Joyce and locked her in a room with nothing but one metal table and chair and what seemed like a mirror on the wall (though she expected that it was one-way glass. "IS ANYONE THERE?" 

Almost immediately after she shouted this, a tall older man with white hair and a lab coat entered the room. Beverly could automatically tell that he wasn't a kind man. 

"Who the hell are you?" Beverly snarled at him. "And where are Hopper and Joyce?"

"I," The man pulled up a chair to sit across from Beverly, "Am Doctor Brenner. But that's not what matters-"

"Let me go!" Beverly shouted at him. She's been through enough shit today, and wanted nothing more than to find Richie and somehow get back home. 

"I can't do that." Was her reply. "It has come to my attention while I was trying to find your identity that you aren't from around here..." 

"I'm from a couple towns over, I'm visiting for-" Beverly began her lie, but was cut off by the scientist.

"DO NOT LIE TO ME." Bev shut her mouth real quick at his sudden anger. "I know that you're from a different world. The tests showed us that much. What I don't know is how. How did you make a doorway powerful enough that it brought you here?"

"I don't know what you're talking about..."

"Did anyone come here with you?"

"Seriously, I'm visiting from a couple towns over-"

"I SAID NOT TO LIE." Beverly avoided eye contact with the raging man. She wanted to run, to hide, like she did when her father was like this. But the restraints on her wrists made that impossible. "NO MORE LIES, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" Beverly nodded. "Good. Now how did you get here?" 

"I..." Beverly felt mixed emotions. She had put two and two together, and she knew that this man was the man that Mike said that Eleven was hiding from. She knew that Eleven was practically tortured here. Mike told her everything. But, on the other hand, maybe if she told Dr. Brenner the truth, he would let her get Richie... No. She would have to find Richie another way, even if it meant lying to this son of a bitch. 

"I don't know. I remember feeling some one hit me in the back of the head with something and then waking up here." Beverly lied, hoping to god that he would buy it. 

"Let's get one thing straight." Dr. Brenner stood and slammed both of his hands on the table, making Beverly jump in her seat. "I know why you're here. We have your friend.We're running tests on him now. I could give one order and he'll be dead in seconds, unless you want to tell me how you got here." He waited for a couple seconds for an answer before standing and walking to the door. 

Beverly didn't know what to do. Richie was here? They'll kill him? 

"Wait!" Beverly shouted as he made his way to the door. He stopped. "Eleven. Eleven brought us." Beverly immediately regretted this situation, knowing that she'll never fully forgive herself. 

"Eleven?" Dr. Brenner turned to face her. "Who-- The girl." He began to turn around again when Bev spoke again. 

"Where's Richie? Bring me to him!" She shouted. At least she gained one thing out of betraying her new friends: her old friends. 

But Dr. Brenner just gave a chuckle. 

"Obviously, you can't tell the difference between a truth and a lie. Your friend is still in the Upside Down, as good as death." Beverly gritted her teeth out of frustration. 

"You're an asshole!" She shouted at him as he left her alone in the room again. 

"Shit... It's been nine minutes, is the Demigorgon even coming?-" Dustin was interrupted by Nancy. 

"Shut up! The lights!" The seven children looked up at the lights. Ben gulped. It only took another three minutes for them to spot the faceless monster moving through the wall, ready to feast. 


	9. Bev visits the Upside Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is basically a build-up for the next chapter which will be a lot longer and more action-packed.

"We've decided to let you search in the Upside Down for your friends." Beverly's head shot up as Dr. Brenner grunted these words and slammed the door open. 

"Richie!" Bev exclaimed quietly, her hope for finding the trashmouth rising. 

"Yeah, yeah," Doctor Brenner released her attachment to the chair and grabbed her wrist. "Come with me." 

Doctor Brenner brought Beverly into the hallway where they met up with Hopper and Joyce, who were wearing Hazmat suits. they were accompanied by a tall man in a white lab coat. 

"Will I need to wear-" Bev began to ask.

"The oxygen in the Upside Down can be harmful to human lungs." The scientist said to her. "We weren't really planning on bringing a child into the Upside Down, so this may be big on you." He held up a large hazmat suit identical to the ones Joyce and Hopper were wearing. Bev eyed the suit, not anticipating having to put it on. 

"OH SHIT!" Dustin shouted as the lanky and grey-skinned monster walked through the doorway.

"Die, you son of a bitch!" Without any warning, Jonathan charged toward the creature, wielding the spiked bat in his shaky hands. The demogorgon let out a roar and all of his attention was now focused on the teen. Before the demogorgon could do anything in his own defense, he was interrupted by the sound of gunshots and to the feeling of bullets slamming into his back. 

Eleven gasped, a worried look on her pale face. 

"The bad men."

"Oh, shit!" Dustin exclaimed. 

Beverly found herself wishing that she was back in Derry as she stepped thought the gooey entrance to the upside down. She was practically swimming in the large hazmat suits they made her wear. 

"Are you two okay?" Hopper called to the two of them, who were beside him. 

"Never better," Bev answered, a sarcastic tone in his voice. Hopper led them, aiming all over the place and preparing to fire at anything that moves. 

"We're okay." Joyce didn't have a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "I think we should start by looking for him in Castle Byers, behind my house."

"And what about Richie?" Bev cut in, glancing around at the spores drifting through the air. They reminded her of flaky skin in the ghostly blue light. 

"We don't know where he is, but we'll look for him too." Hopper answered. 

"Don't worry," Joyce squeezed Bev's hand, "you'll see him again soon." Beverly smiled up at her. Joyce was like the mother she hasn't had in a long time. She almost wished that she could stay here in Hawkins with Joyce, and Will could be her little brother! She's always wanted a sibling. But she new that would never happen. Besides, the Losers at home must be worried sick right now...

A/N: Hey, guys! I'm sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but I've been struggling with some personal issues lately and couldn't bring myself to write. I'm feeling a bit better now and am looking forward to continuing the story! Also, the next chapter will be a lot longer and will have more action in it. Just you wait!

-Sincerely, Simp_For_Will_The_Wise1983


	10. Journey Through the Upside Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bev Hopper and Joyce save Will and Richie

Bill paced his bedroom floor, feeling tense. First Georgie, then Richie and Beverly and Ben, now Eddie? Most of the Losers were gone already. There was now no choice but to go into the clown's layer on 29 Neibolt Street to save his brother and friends from the demonic shape shifting clown. But he needed Stan and Mike. He grabbed the baseball bat in the corner of his room by his desk, the same desk he sat at while making Georgie's boat...

Bill rushed out of his house and grabbed his bike from the garage. When his father asked where he was going, his only answer was one word: "out."

He first went to Stan's house, because it was the closest to his, but soon discovered that no one was inside. 

"S-shit!" A realization struck Bill: Stanley's bar mitzvah was today. Without further thinking, he hopped into his bike and rode as fast as possible to Stan's church, which, thankfully, wasn't too far.

Bill arrived to the church's parking lot, dropped his bike, and hurried to the front door. He watched through the window. He saw Stan on the stage standing behind a podium. He was talking--no, giving a speech! Bill released a heavy sigh. He didn't have time for this! He decided to wait by the window for the ceremony to end. 

A minute later, Bill was still waiting and watching through the glass door when things starting getting interesting. Stan walked off of the stage while his dad followed closely behind, his face showing a mix of discomfort and anger, trying to take the microphone from his son. Bill opened the door slightly to hear what Stan was saying. 

Stan turned to face his dad, shakily holding the microphone in front of his mouth. 

"I know I'm a Loser," Stan said firmly to his father, whose facial expressions didn't change, "And I always fucking will be!" Stan dropped the microphone and fastly walked through the utterly surprised crowd and out of the church

"Stan!" Bill almost yelled when Stan burst through the door, "I n-need your h-h-help!" 

"Why? Did it get Mike?!" 

"No." Bill said as he and Stan walked to his bike, "I'm going t-t-to save them. All of t-t-them. 

"Bill, that's a suicide mission!" Stan shouted. 

"Not if we t-t-team up!"

"It's going to kill us all!"

"N-not if we kill i-i-i-it first!" Bill fought back. "I c-c-cant do this alone, S-Stan." Stan didn't respond. Instead he stood there, looking at the ground, making his final decision. 

After what seemed like a year later to Bill (but was only thirty seconds in reality), Stan spoke again. 

"Your going either way, aren't you?" Stan asked quietly. 

Bill nodded, looking down. 

"Let me get my bike." Stan said, "and a knife." 

"Knife?" Bill was surprised by Stan's sudden change in behavior. 

"How else are we going to kill this asshole?" 

Bill had waited outside of Stan's house for ten minutes until he emerged from his garage with his bike in his grip and a back pack. 

"W-whats the b-b-backpack?" Bill asked. 

"Essentials."

"We're going to 29 Neibolt Street to kill Pennywise?" Mike took off his gloves. Stan and Bill rode to the farm to recruit the last Loser. 

"Yes." Bill said. 

"Wait." Mike picked up what seemed like a metal-looking gun lying on a table and walked to his bike. "Alright, let's go." 

Bill smirked at how much easier it was to get Mike on board with the plan than Stan. 

The gunshots roared through the school as the agents of Hawkins Lab fired at the Demogorgon, appearently not taking the hint made no impact on the faceless beast. The kids, not wanting to get mixed up in the fight, left out through another door. The last thing Eleven saw before she left the cafeteria was Dr. Brenner get caught in a bear trap that the kids had set up for the demogorgon while trying to chase the kids. The Demogorgon stayed behind and roared as more gunshots were fired, about to attack. 

The group of children, led by Nancy and Jonathan, ran through the hallway as fast as humanly possible, knowing that the agents wouldn't last too long after the monster decided to quit putting up with the gunshots. 

"WHERE THE HELL DO WE GO NOW?" Mike shouted to his sister. They heard Dr. Brenner scream for his agents to "get the girl", accompanied with the Demogorgon's battle cry. The gunshots sound seemed to be decreasing, which meant that the monster was nearly finished with the Hawkins agents. They didn't have much time before it got bored and decided to find a new target. 

"I DONT KNOW," Nancy shouted, "BUT LETS LEAVE THIS HELL HOLE!" the kids picked up their pace. Ben found to hat it was getting harder to keep up with the others and had to fight the urge to drop on the ground and sleep. The room went quiet for a second, but the blinking lights told the kids to the demogorgon was still here.

The cool breeze of winter hit the kids as soon as they left the school. The group stood in silence for a minute or two, using this time to catch their breath.

"Okay," Luke was the first one to speak, "what now?"

"We need to get the hell out of here!" Nancy panted.

They ran to Jonathan's car without further thinking. There wasn't enough room for all of them, but they made do with what they had. Jonathan turned the car on and pulled out of the driveway. 

"Where are we going?" Dustin panted asked Jonathan. 

"My house." Was the response. 

"I can't believe our plan to kill that thing failed twice!" Nancy exclaimed, putting her gun on her lap. 

"Don't worry," Jonathan said, driving down the road, "something tells me we'll get another chance to kill it tonight..." 

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?" Beverly shouted and jumped back at the sight of that alien-like creature latching onto Richie's mouth. After about twenty minutes of walking through the empty streets in the Upside Down, Hopper, Joyce, and Bev finally reached Castle Byers.

"WILL!" Joyce shouted and ran to her son, sho was pinned to the wall. "Will! Hopper! Help me!" Joyce attempted to pull the creature out of her son's mouth with no luck. "Help me!" 

"Richie?" Bev kneeled beside the Trashmouth and immediately grabbed the creature that latched onto his mouth. "Oh, Richie, please tell me your okay!" Beverly pulled the pipe-like creature in attempt to release it from the trashmouth's mouth. It didn't budge. She was glad that she was wearing the hazmat suit, not wanting to know what affect the polluted air could have on her. 

She pulled again, this time feeling it release slightly. Hopper already pulled the creature off of Will and was now pulling the rest of it out of his throat. It disgusted Beverly to look at. She heard Joyce crying and saying Will's name. Bev could tell that she really loved her son.

Beverly pulled a third time, and the creature released itself from Richie's mouth. Richie's eyes popped open and he tried to shout something like "WHAT THE FUCK!", but found himself choking on the rest of the creature, which was still in his throat. Beverly did her best not to jump back in shock when he woke up all of a sudden so that she could pull this thing out of his throat before he choked to death. She released the creature from his mouth with one hard pull and threw it on the ground for Hopper to shoot. Richie coughed as soon as it left his throat, gasping for air. 

"Your okay!" Beverly wrapped her arms around Richie and embraced him in a warm hug. He continued to cough. 

"Will?" Joyce was still crying. Hopper finished pulling the monster out of his mouth completely. But he didn't wake up. "Hopper, why isn't he waking up?" 

Hopper didn't answer. He instead pinched Will's nose and began to perform CPR. 

"Holy fuck!" Richie finally cought his breath, but was feeling light-headed. He watched as Hopper attempted to save Will. 

After about two minutes of Hopper performing CPR, a wide-eyed Will finally gasped for air. 

Bev watched Hopper give his helmet to Will, and decided to do the same for Richie. 

"Take this," Beverly handed Richie the white helmet, "It'll help with the air." He immediately put it on. 

"Mom," Will looked at Joyce, "I wanna go home." Joyce continued to hug him, but then released him and stood, helping Will onto his feet. 

"Same here." Richie said. 

"We'll figure out how once we leave this place," Bev reassured him. Without any further conversation, the five of them made their way back to the gate in Hawkins Lab. Back home. 


	11. 29 Neibolt Street

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The three remaining Losers prepare to save their friends. (Another build up chapter)

"Okay," Bill dropped his bike and looked at the house on 29 Neibolt Street. Stan and Mike did the same. though he didn't have any thoughts on turning around and abandoning his friends and baby brother, Bill now felt a new feeling of fear when he looked at the house. This thing is responsible for countless children in Derry over the years. How were three kids with weak weapons supposed to kill it? But Bill shrugged this question off, replacing it with the feeling of happiness he will feel when he saves Beverly. How could she ever say no to her hero? "W-W-We go in and d-d-down t-the well. T-T-That's where he's hiding. 

"What do we do when we find it, Bill?" Stan's voice cracked, he reeked of fear. "I-I mean, how are we going to kill it? I doubt a couple of bullets and a bat will do it."

"He's right," Mike said, "we should think of a different way to do it."

"First," Bill answered, "we f-find the others. T-T-Then we hit it w-w-with all we got. It'll be one ag-g-g-gainst seven once we f-f-find the others. We'll find a w-w-w-way."

"Alright," Mike agreed to the plan. Mike and Bill stood in silence as they waited for Stan to voice his thoughts. 

"Fine," Stan finally agreed to the plan, though he wasn't a big fan of it. With that, the three of them made their way up the stairs and though the already open doorway. 

"S-Sh-Shit," Bill stuttered, looking at the well in front of them. "T-Th-Th-There it i-is."

"Right," Mike responded, "but how do we get down?"

"Rope." Bill pointed to a rope on the ceiling of the well that led to the bottom. With that, the three of them climbed onto the rope and helped each other down into the monster's layer. 

Beverly was the one who knocked on the Byers' door. After leaving the Upside down, they checked the school for the rest of the kids, but were met with blood-streaked walls and dead Hawkins Lab agents. They even found Dr. Brenner trapped in a bear trap. they thought he was dead, but Hopper put a bullet through his head just to be sure, as a promise that Eleven would never have to deal with his shit ever again. 

The door was opened by Mike Wheeler, who's eyes went wide when he saw Will lying in Joyce's arms. Richie never noticed how similar he and Mike looked until now. 

"Is he-" Mike began.

"Dead?" Joyce asked, "No." Mike let out a sigh of relief. "He's just exhausted. Fell asleep in the car. We shouldn't wake him. Let him rest." Joyce walked past Mike and lied Will down on the couch, earning the stares of everyone she passed. Jonathan and Nancy in the kitchen. Ben and Dustin (who ended up being good friends) sitting at the kitchen table. Eleven and Lucas and Mike on the couch (until they got up to give Will room). Even Steve Harrington was there in a corner. The group had found him at the Byers' front door when they arrived. Apparently he was trying to make up with Jonathan. When they tried to get him to leave, he refused, and stayed with them. 

"Ben!" Richie exclaimed, "Jesus fucking Christ, I thought I wouldn't see you again!" Ben left Dustin to join Richie and Bev. Ben hugged Beverly immediately. 

"You didn't tell me you were going! I was worried sick!" Ben exclaimed, wishing this hug could last forever. 

"I know. I'm sorry." Bev replied. 

"This was fun and all," Richie started, but we really need to get home." 

"Excuse me?" Mike exclaimed in disbelief, "We have a demogorgon to kill!" 

"So?" Richie fought back, "We have an immortal killer clown to kill!" 

"You need Eleven to get back home, but she's not doing that until this thing is dead! She's not wasting her energy on-"

"Both of you shut up." It was Beverly. "I have an idea to kill them both. And it only requires Eleven to use her power once."

"Great," Mike said, "lets hear it."


	12. The Demogorgon V.S. Pennywise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Losers and the party team up to kill the Demogorgon and Pennywise.

Beverly's plan was simple: Bring the Demogorgon into the Upside Down and take it to Pennywise's lair, where, hopefully, the two of them would either destroy each other or weaken each other enough to make the job easier for the rest of them to kill the monsters. 

"That has to be the worst idea I've ever heard!" Mike almost shouted at Beverly. 

"I told you it was dangerous!" Beverly yelled back at him, rolling her eyes. 

"Dangerous?" Mike exclaimed, "You want us to get the demogorgon to fight Pennywise! That's not dangerous, it's psychotic!" 

"I think its a good idea," Hopper pitched in. 

"What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Mike was now talking to both Beverly and Hopper. 

"It could work." Nancy sided with Hopper and Beverly, "I mean, obviously we're not strong enough to defeat the demogorgon alone, and their not strong enough to kill that clown... they could at least-"

"And what if they team up against us? What do we do then?" 

"Come on, Mike," Lucas played with his slingshot, "Don't be a pussy. It's a good plan. 

"No way!" Dustin panicked. "It's too risky. I'm with Mike." 

"Well it doesn't matter who's side you're on, because this is our only plan." Hopper looked at Eleven. "Do you think you can open another gate into the Inside Out to bring us to--- what was it called?"

"29 Neibolt Street." Beverly answered. 

"29 Neibolt Street in Derry, Main." Hopper finished. Eleven looked at him, not blinking. She was well rested, and wanted to do anything in her power to help the losers and kill the Demogorgon, even if the plan was extremely risky...

Eleven nodded. "Yes." 

"Great." Hopper sighed, "Nancy, Jonathan, summon this son of a bitch." 

Eleven stood and got into position so that when the Domogorgon came she could quickly open the gate to the inside out and enter 29 Neibolt Street. She planned to open it as soon as the Demogorgon appeared. 

Nancy and Jonathan stood across from each other in the kitchen. Nancy had the knife so that it would reopen the same wound as before. 

"I can't believe we're actually doing this..." Jonathan's voice was a little shaky. He was unsure of the plan. 

"Well believe it," Nancy said before cutting their palms with the knife a second time, reopening the same wound. she quickly dropped the knife and grabbed the bandages with her uninjured hand. She hastily wrapped the bandages around Jonathan's hand and then her own. Now all they had to do was wait for the monster to show up, which could take a while. 

But it wasn't too long before the lights started blinking. Only about five or six minutes. It wasn't too long after that when the monster showed up, and Eleven, through gritted teeth, began opening the gate into the black void they called the Inside Out.

"Oh my god," Dustin panicked. He was the first one to jump through the gate, forgetting the fact that it would lead him to a demonic murderous clown. Mike was the second person, followed by Lucas and Ben. Eleven's nose was now leaking a steady stream of blood. Richie and Beverly were the next two to jump through the gate. Then Hopper. Joyce was going to stay behind with Will, to make sure he was alright. Nancy and Steve ran through together, holding hands, followed by Jonathan. Everyone was now in the Inside out except for Eleven and the Demogorgon. 

"ELEVEN, NOW!" Mike shouted at the top of his lungs. This was a risky plan, and messing up even the smallest detail could lead to a catastrophe. 

Eleven released her left hand from the gate, making it a little smaller, and used it to lift the Demogorgon into the air. Mike could see that this was extremely energy consuming for her. She lifted him only a foot off of the ground and used her power to throw him through the gate with as much force as possible before jumping through the gate herself. 

Not wasting any time, Eleven automatically started running through the void to where she would need to be to open the portal to 29 Neibolt Street. 

"What the hell?" Stan stood up and observed his surroundings. It looked extremely grimy and dirty. Exactly what he'd expected. Bill and Mike stood next to him.

"This way!" Bill took off and ran as fast as he could through a narrow pathway in attempt to find where the monster hid. "Follow me!" Stan and Mike followed closely behind, practically sprinting after Bill. 

Several minutes of wondering through the basement of 29 Neibolt Street passed but the Losers couldn't seem to find Pennywise's hiding place. Several more minutes passed until they found Eddie floating in the air, his head tilted upwards and his eyes blank. 

"Holy shit! Bill, what do we do?" Stan looked up at Eddie, beginning to panic, "And where are the others, Bill? I thought you said that they would be here too! you said-"

"I-I-I don't kn-know!"

"Oh my god..." Mike stared up at Eddie's lifeless body. He was about to grab Eddie's foot and bring him down when his thoughts were interrupted by a child's voice. 

"Billy?" 

Bill's head spun around faster than he thought was humanly possible. The sight of his brother like that-- his arm ripped off and his face whiter than what seemed healthy-- made him want to collapse in tears. It couldn't be... Bill held his hand behind his back and motioned for Mike's gun. He very quickly felt the weight of the metal weapon in his hand. Mike, now empty handed, took a step away from Bill. 

"Georgie." Bill faced his brother and walked closer. 

"Billy," Georgie cried, his tears ran down his cheeks. "Billy, I want to go home." Bill readied the gun. 

"I-I-I know, G-Georgie." Bill answered. He knew this wasn't real... It couldn't be! But the sight of his brother like that. It felt very real. Could he actually do this to something that looked so much like his beloved Georgie?

"Billy I want to see mommy and daddy again." Demon-Georgie walked closer to Bill. Bill embraced him in a warm hug while trying to make sure Demon-Georgie doesn't feel the gun. 

"I-I know, G-G-Georgie." 

"Billy please take me home!" 

"Don't worry Georgie, I'll be home very soon." Without any warning, Bill pulled away from the impostor and aimed the gun to the center of his head. 

"Billy?" Demon-Georgie cried one last time before Bill pulled the trigger and the body dropped onto the ground. 

"Holy-" The body began shaking rapidly and Demon-Georgie's arms and legs grew double their size. 

Bill backed up as the monster took his most common form: Pennywise the dancing clown.

"Here." Eleven opened the gate into the basement of 29 Neibolt Street, where Bev told her to, to find Pennywise standing over a boy she didn't recognize. 

"BILL!" Bev was the first one to run through the gate, followed by the rest of the kids and Jim Hopper in one army. Pennywise jumped off of Bill and looked at the approaching crowd. Though he didn't have much time to really process what was happening before Eleven threw the Demogorgon on him at full force. Using her powers like this was quickly draining her energy and she fainted at once, both of her nostrils bleeding heavily. Mike was the one to stay with her. 

The Demogorgon was on top of a very confused Pennywise, who opened his large mouth, revealing several rows of teeth, in attempt to fight back against the Demogorgon. 

"HOLY SHIT!" Hopper shouted at the top of his lungs as he shot at the clown. 

"Beverly? Richie? Ben? What the hell is happening?" Stan couldn't believe what he'd just seen happen. 

"Long story. No time to explain."

"Where's Eddie?" Richie asked the only question on his mind. Stan didn't answer. "Where the fuck is he?" Richie grew angrier. Stan pointed to Eddie's lifeless floating body. Richie turned to see it for himself. 

"Holy shit." He whispered to himself before running after Eddie. 

Pennywise was struggling, but he finally managed to stand up again. Unlike the Demogorgon, Hopper's and Nancy's bullets were affecting him, but not nearly as much as they'd hoped. Steve focused more on the Demogorgon, striking it with the nailed bat that Jonathan gave him.

The odds of beating these monsters were, surprisingly in their favor. It was thirteen against one against one, since the Demogorgon and Pennywise were also fighting each other in the midst of the chaos. The next time Pennywise opened his large mouth and revealed his rows of teeth, Lucas struck him in his throat with his slingshot and sent the clown on the ground choking on a rock. Ben and Steve both used this opportunity to strike the clown in his stomach with their spiked bats. 

Then the Demogorgon took the opportunity to reach out and grab Steve's neck while Steve's back was facing the monster. Steve felt the Demogorgon choke him as he was being lifted into the air, causing him to drop his spiked bat. 

Stanley, who had gotten over the shock of these new people and this faceless monster, charged at the demogorgon with his pocket knife opened and ended up stabbing the monster in it's stomach. The Demogorgon, roaring in pain, dropped Steve onto his spiked bat and took a coupe of steps back. Steve winced as the sharp nails entered his knee. Stan helped him up and retrieved bandages from his bag to give to Steve, who thanked him. 

Richie was running away from the fight. Not because he was scared (though he was scared) but because there was something else that was more important to him: the lifeless body floating midair that wore a pink shirt and a cast that said LOSER. 

The Trashmouth grabbed Eddie by his shoe and pulled him down to his level. 

"Eddie?" Richie shook him a tiny bit. No response. "Eddie, wake up! EDDIE!" Richie's eyes filled with tears. He thought back to the arcade. To Conner Bowers rejecting him right before Henry shouted at him. To running to the park, where he was attacked by a giant statue. To running to the kissing bridge. To carving R+E into the wood with a pocket knife he found on the street. 

"EDDIE, PLEASE WAKE UP!" Richie was filled with despair as he let his head lower onto Eddie's chest, just below his chin. "Eddie," He sobbed, feeling a warm hand on his shoulder. Beverly's hand. 

"Richie..." Beverly didn't know what to say. 

"No. Just go." Richie continued to sob. Beverly turned around and joined the fight. Richie raised his head one last time and looked into Eddie's lifeless eyes when an idea hit him, causing him to do something he'd always been too scared to do before. Something he's wanted to do since the fifth grade. 

Richie kissed Eddie.

He kept his eyes closed, savoring the moment, but wishing that he could be doing this with a conscious Eddie Kaspbrack. 

"Richie?" Eddie pulled away, suddenly gaining consciousness again.

"Eddie?" Richie couldn't believe his eyes. "Eddie! You're okay!" Richie's body flooded with both relief and embarrassment.

"What the hell is happening?" Eddie took a step back and looked at the mini battle playing out in front of him.

"long story."

"What is that thing?"

"It's called a demogorgon."

"Who are those people?" 

"Long story. For another time." 

"And, Richie?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you kiss me?"

"Are you mad at me?"

"Not at all." Was the last thing Eddie said before pulling the Trashmouth in for another kiss, though this one was way shorter. Eddie pulled out. "Yeah, we should probably help..." Richie grinned.

"Yeah, your right."

"Eleven?" Mike attempted to wake her up. Pennywise was gone. He had been defeated, but most likely not killed. But the Demogorgon still lived, and was far from death. Eddie and Richie had just arrived of the scene.

"Eleven. Please wake up." Hopper stopped shooting at the Demogorgon and joined Mike. 

"Eleven!" Eleven's eyes snapped open. She got off of the ground and faced the Demogorgon. It looked at her and let out a ferocious roar. Eleven held up both of her hands and aimed at the Demogorgon. With one shove she pushed him onto the ground, lying on his back and struggling to release himself from her control. He failed.

Eleven looked at Steve, who was wielding a spiked bat, and then at the Demogorgon, who's mouth was wide open. 

Steve got what she was trying to say and raised his spiked bat above the monster's open mouth before jamming it into the Demogorgon's throat. He was choking it. It only took about a minute of the monster struggling to break free while being choked with a spiked bat until it stopped moving altogether, except for one or two twitches. 

Eleven released her grip on the monster. It didn't move. 

"I think we killed it." Dustin pointed out. 

"No shit." Lucas responded. 

"W-W-Who the hell a-are y-y-you guys?" Bill asked, looking at Mike and Hopper. Beverly walked up from behind Bill. 

"It's a long story... You might want to sit down for this one..."


	13. Home

The Losers and the Party (plus Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, and Hopper were standing right outside of 29 Neibolt Street. The Party, Hopper, Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve would have been gone by now, bur they decided to stay and give Eleven time to rest. They used this time to fill the confused Losers on what's been going on for the last couple of days. 

"I don't understand..." Stan shook his head, "So this girl... Eleven brings you into a different universe?"

"Through a passage called the Inside Out." Ben confirmed.

"Yeah," Richie grinned, "It was darker than Eddie's mom's-"

"Shut the fuck up, Richie!" Eddie, who was sitting so close to Richie that he was nearly sitting on his lap, elbowed Richie in his side, which made Richie's grin wider. Eddie had to admit that he was secretly hiding a smirk himself. 

"And the Demogorgon," Mike spoke, "That was that faceless monster that appeared with you guys?"

"Yeah." 

"Oh my god." 

"We t-t-thought that th-th-that thing took you!" Bill sat next to Beverly. 

All fifteen of them stood in silence. It was Mike Wheeler who broke it.

"We should get home." He said, looking at Eleven, who nodded. 

"Home," Eleven agreed. 

And so everyone said their goodbyes. Eleven opened the gate into the Inside Out. Everyone stepped through the gate one by one. Mike. Lucas. Dustin. Steve. Nancy. Jonathan. Everyone stepped through until Hopper was the last one left. He approached Beverly, taking his wallet out. He opened the wallet and took out two twenty dollar bills. 

"Take this." Hopper put the money in her hand. "The next time your father gives you any more shit - any at all - I want you to run away and I want you to move in with the closest relative you feel safe with. You'll need this for food and any train tickets. Just promise me you won't take any more of that asshole's shit."

Beverly tried giving the money back.

"I can't take this-"

"You can, and you will." And with that, Hopper turned and left through the gate. Eleven was the last one to step through and close the gate.

"Would it be too late to tell to tell him that I already have plans to move in with my grandmother?" Beverly laughed while looking back at the Losers. Bill and Ben looked heartbroken. Richie was smirking, savoring this moment with Eddie's head on his shoulder. 

It's about time, Bev thought, looking at the couple. 

THE END

(A/N: Yeah idk how else too end this chapter... I hope you guys liked it! feel free to live comments in the discussion, I always enjoy reading them!)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I hope you enjoyed my story. Feedback and constructive criticism are very much appreciated.


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